This Q&A session explores the two sides of what it takes to build a truly effective HR function, one that is designed around how people actually experience work, and one that has the financial credibility to influence commercial decisions at the highest level. Drawing on both the lifecycle-centered operating model and the HR–Finance partnership approaches explored in the Discover sessions, participants will examine the structural and relational changes that most reliably move HR from functional support to strategic partner.

• What are the biggest structural barriers to designing HR around the employee lifecycle, and how do you begin to dismantle them?
• How do you build financial fluency across an HR team without losing the human-centered culture that defines it?
• What governance changes most reliably break down the silos between COEs, shared services, and HRBPs?
• How do you make the business case for people-centered HR design in the language that CFOs and CEOs find credible?